Do You Dream Like Me?
Stop Motion, Animation, Charcoal, Gouache, Digital Photography, Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects

Do we dream in ways that are similar to one another? As people share similar experiences in life, do we also share similar experiences in dreams despite the solitary nature in the act of dreaming? With this work, I am exploring the dreams of others. In order to understand the narrative aspects which overlap in the dreams of others and how that informs their perception. Using film, I recorded two individuals recounting a dream which had deep significance to each of them. Together, we explored the elements which appeared in their dreams, and what each element meant to them. The interview process involved a series of questions that unraveled the deeper meanings of the participants’ respective dreams. We analyzed some of the elements as well as the colors, emotions, and symbolism that best fit the dreams and their own interpretation of it. I then set out to recreate the dream as true to the essence of the person as possible, using two distinctive animation techniques. The two people chosen for this project are unique, and so I have chosen a distinctive animation style to render the dreams to speak to the individualistic nature of dreams. Surprisingly, there was some overlap in the dreams. Both dreams involved death, but the meaning behind the deaths in the dreams were completely different. There is some sameness and some strangeness in the understanding that our brains are not that different in what they build in the night. While elements may find similarity, the experience of dreams is deeply personal, and can shed light on how we as humans connect with ourselves and with others.

 

Artist Statement

I am a mixed media artist working in both paint and digital animation. At my core, I am a curious being. Though my curiosity often seems endless, it finds a special solace in dreams. I often wonder about the dreams my brain constructs—the architecture of people, creations, structures, and meanings it builds and rebuilds in the night. Through paints and varying animation methods, I engage experimental means of unraveling layers of the brain. I believe dreams are vessels for deeper subconscious movements and emotions that connect us to our more curious selves. The liminal spaces between the conscious and subconscious are an extraordinary expanse that helps me understand the world and others around me. The subconscious is ever present, yet it is a part of ourselves we can never fully grasp or greet. This can be both alienating and a place for connection. The intentionality of colors and expressive movement with which I formulate my work are the methodical means by which I can, in some small way, shake hands with a part of my brain that has been with me my whole life…to greet my subconscious like an old friend through bright movements. My dreams and how I understand and express them through art are relational, and meant to invite an open space to the intimate elements which connect to the world and those around me.

Biography

Aviana Eder is a mixed media artist with a special emphasis in animation. She was born in Santa Clara, California, but has lived in Colorado Springs while pursuing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing, and a Bachelor’s in Art History with a minor in Oceanography at CU Boulder. Experimentation is at the forefront of her practice. Her work revolves around community and the exploration of dreams. Using a mix of digital and traditional painting methods she creates narratives which explore relational elements of community, and the myriad of forms it takes in the subconscious. Her work has been featured at the Kreuser Gallery, and in group exhibitions such as the Pikes Peak Multi Media Arts Showcase and the King’s Exhibition. Currently, she is exploring experimental animation and phenomenological approaches to art. Aviana hopes to continue her art practices and innovate new ways to engage with animation, as well as utilize her minor in Oceanography to help with marine conservation.

 

Figures in the Haze

"Figures in the Haze," 2021.
Acrylic on Canvas

It is incredible the amount of information that our eyes take in every day. That information is often translated into dreams and those dreams are oftentimes filled with people. Sometimes I know the people, oftentimes I do not. Psychology tells us that the people who show up in our dreams is data that the eye collected and the brain stored for future use. Even people who seem to be strangers in the dream are people I have seen in my life even for just a moment. The fact that my brain held on to this person, whoever they may be, is absolutely fascinating! For an entire semester, every morning for about 15-20 minutes, I wrote out the dreams I had from the night before in a dream journal. At the end of the semester, I compiled a list of the people who showed up in my dreams and the emotions associated with the dream. I then set out to paint one person from each dream in a color evocative of an emotion that they or the dream itself conveyed. There are 76 figures in total. If the person appeared in more than one dream, I would go over the line drawing and so the lines would be thicker and the person would stand out more prominently. If I could not remember the dream, there is an abstraction of the form to represent what could have been there. It is an acknowledgment to the ephemeral exchanges we do not always perceive and a testament to the incredible work the body does unbeknownst to us.

 

Artwork
Click on the image to enlarge

Aviana Eder, "Brillian Mycelium"
Aviana Eder, "Pleiades"
Aviana Eder, "Who’s a Good Boy?"
In Transit 2021 Acrylic on Wood

"Pleiades," 2020
Gouache, Acrylic, Bristol Board, Cloth
This is an interactive art book. The book illustrates a re-telling of the Greek myth of the Seven Sisters of Pleiades. It is a constellation in the sky near Orion and Taurus, throughout the book there are several star motifs and constellations which appear and went into the construction. The book is story-driven, it is a thank you to the women in my life who have been role models, friends, inspirations, and sources of empowerment. I have been very blessed to know some incredible women in my life who have helped me feel accepted as I am, but also helped me out of a really dark time in my life. When I could not see a light, my friends were the ones who sat with me in the dark. Overall the story conveys how we rise by lifting others. I wanted the book to have a similar sense of joy that they brought to me, and hopefully bring a smile to anyone who gets to engage with it. The book is accordion-style and folds out from a diamond shape and has a few moving elements incorporated as well as hidden art pieces, to make for a more engaging experience and to bring the story to life!

"Brilliant Mycelium," 2021
Acrylic on Canvas
This is one in a series of explorations into nightmares. This specific piece is meant to evoke the lamplight elements which played throughout the dream. The atmospheric environment of the nightmare which was shrouded in dark. The figure which traverses the forest was my guide through the forest, spirit made of mycelium who illuminated everything she touched.

"Who’s a Good Boy?," 2021
Digital photography, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92O3q2yRn3s
Like Déjà vu, A piece meant to evoke the strange familiarity with which dreams reinvent realities taken in by the eye in the day.

"In Transit," 2021 (banner image)
Acrylic on Wood
Every night whether I am conscious of it or not, my brain constructs these beautiful, intricate worlds. This fragmentary piece is the culmination of a week’s worth of worlds that my brain constructed in the night. Using a triadic color palette, I focused on the atmospheric, environmental spaces in order to understand more deeply the processes allow my brain to create. The black lines separate them as fragmentary collections of the amalgamate worlds built inside my subconscious.